[Ads-l] Another oldie turns up in print, finally

[Baker, John]

Wilson, I'll respond to this offline.  My comment was nothing more than a joking remark on what I took to be a poorly phrased explanation by you.  I assume that children were not knowingly asking for sex, but that they might ask for affection using the same sign that an adult might use to ask for sex.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilson Gray
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2016 10:25 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Another oldie turns up in print, finally

On Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 9:57 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:

> I'm disturbed by the suggestion that little children were asking for sex
> during WWII.
>

Children using that gesture to ask one another for sex and having any idea
of what sex is are two different things. According to some sources, before
white people arrived to destroy the indigenous culture in order to save
savage souls save their souls from eternal damnation and make a few bucks
on the side, there was no time when the Balinese refrained from engaging in
sex with their coevals. Since children, teens, and parents all lived
together intimately, for children to see adults engaging in sex was no
stranger, odder, depraved, or sicker than your children seeing you and your
wife sharing a bottle of wine.

Or are you just pulling my leg and I've failed to see the joke. Because you
cannot possibly be more concerned with the innocent play of little colored
kids than you were with the effect of Jim Crow on those po' pickaninnies.
Is I'm right? I know I ram!


-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org